Clean the digital kiosks each time a customer orders. Place "closed" signs on certain tables to promote social-distancing. Scrub the bathrooms every half-hour.

Those were among the instructions in a 59-page guide that McDonald's recently distributed to franchisees outlining procedures for safely reopening the fast-food chain's dining rooms across the country.

The guide -- titled "The Dine-In Reopening Playbook" -- does not outline a strict timeline, giving franchisees some discretion to decide when to reopen, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times.

Once a local government says that restaurants can admit dine-in guests, a McDonald's official in that region will decide whether reopening can begin, it says. Then individual franchise owners will make a decision about whether to go through with reopening.

So far, fewer than 100 McDonald's locations have opened dining rooms in the states where that is already allowed. A McDonald's spokesman, Jesse Lewin, said the company and its franchisees had been discussing reopening plans "for the last several weeks."
The company worked with epidemiologists as well as state and local health officials to assemble the guidelines, he said.

In addition to the rules about kiosks and bathrooms, the guide calls for all "high-touch" areas to be disinfected every 30 minutes and recommends putting signage on the floor to prevent customers from brushing past one another as they move around.